Fairfield mayor serves meals, meets with seniors

FAIRFIELD — An Elvis song played, Mayor Harry Price helped serve meals and more than 20 people at the Senior Center had minestrone, roast beef and cheese on a wheat bun, cranberry juice and chocolate pudding.

“It’s wonderful,” said Betty Christiansen, 84, of Vacaville. “The program is excellent.”

Meals on Wheels, which serves more than 650 meals a day in Solano County, had help from the mayor Thursday. He served meals at the center and then, around noon, joined a volunteer to help deliver food.

Price has assisted Meals on Wheels for more than a decade.

“Harry’s been fabulous,” said Cathy Hall, Meals on Wheels executive director. “He believes in the program.”

Sandra Tabada, site host for Meals of Wheels, provides the music and customizes it for events such as Valentine’s Day. People having lunch include low-income residents and those who want to socialize at the center, Tabada said. A $3 donation is suggested. People who can’t contribute that are asked to donate what they can. No one is denied a meal because they can’t pay.

The Area Agency on Aging, federal funds and community donations fund Meals on Wheels.

“It’s very compassionate,” diner and Fairfield resident Charles R. Lowry Jr. 64, said of the program.

Solano County Supervisors Erin Hannigan and Skip Thompson and other mayors will assist the meal effort March 17.

Mayor Price asked a diner Thursday about the minestrone and heard how the soup was fine – a conclusion two female diners at the senior center said applies to the mayor, as well.

Grace Jackson, 82, of Fairfield, said she asked Price not to pass along her personal assessment to his wife.

“But,” Jackson said of the mayor, “he is handsome.” Ruby Butler, 73, dining with Jackson, added, “I love his smile.”

Elmer Duckett of Fairfield, who declined to give his age, had another matter for the mayor – potholes on Mockingbird Lane where Duckett lives, a problem the city has hired a crew to address.